Conference motions

Conference notes that 2015 marks the 30th anniversary of the historic first time trade unions led the pride march. Trade unionists were showing solidarity to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people who had campaigned and fund-raised for striking miners in 1984/85. Conference notes that the 1984/85 miners’ strike was a straight-up fight with a […]

Conference notes that on the 15th July 2015 the Home Office began a consultation process on proposals to reform the police funding formula. This consultation ended on the 15th Sept 2015. The proposals within the consultation are to reform the existing funding system for police forces in England and Wales with five identified guiding principles; […]

In June 2013 Accenture PLC a multi national management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company were awarded the i6 project, which will see a single system operate across Scotland, described by Police Scotland as the “largest and most significant transformational change ever undertaken by the service”, replacing 135 existing IT and paper-based systems and providing […]

Conference notes that the government’s consultation paper on ‘Reforming the Powers of Police Staff and Volunteers’ published on 9 September 2015 contains both opportunities and threats for the police service and police staff. Key proposals in the consultation paper include: • Creating a list of ‘core’ police powers – including arrest and stop and search […]

Conference notes that UNISON members are facing unprecedented attacks and challenges including to our pay, terms and conditions, benefits and living standards. Meanwhile we are expected to do more for less, covering unfilled and deleted posts, while services we rely on disappear and housing costs spiral. At a time when workers need their union more […]

Conference condemns the Tory Government’s sustained attack on the rights of public service unions and workers – rights guaranteed under International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions. The undermining of the rights of trade unionists violates civil liberties and human rights including the freedom of association and assembly. Conference is therefore not surprised but is appalled that […]

Conference notes that the social model of disability is crucial to ensuring that our disabled lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) members are able to participate within the union and the LGBT self organised group at branch level, regionally and nationally. Conference believes, however, that there can be a lack of understanding and awareness of […]

Conference notes that Access To Work funding is a vital tool in enabling disabled people gain employment and stay in work. This fund allows employees to defray additional employment costs that arise as a result of their disability. These include, but are not limited to, services such as British Sign Language (BSL) interpreters, specialist adaptations […]

Conference welcomes the advances made in the treatment of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and the consequent increase in life expectancy of those living with HIV so that they are now expected to have a normal life span. This has exposed a whole set of new challenges for the HIV+ community as they face the […]

Conference notes that the Conservative Party’s success at the general and local elections on May 7th created further threats to public services, trade union rights and Black and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) members’ jobs and standard of living. Conference remembers that the previous Conservative led government pursued a range of savage policies resulting […]

Conference notes the pilot by Broken Rainbow for a social response to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) domestic violence which has been shortlisted for a National Diversity Award in August 2015. We need to encourage the inclusion of Black LGBT experiences of domestic violence and the services they access, due to the nature of […]

Conference believes that the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) self organised group is an exemplar of fair representation when it comes to structure and reserved seats for disabled LGBT members on national and regional LGBT committees, while recognising that still in 2015 disabled members face barriers to participation in all aspects of society. Conference, […]

PCSOs an endangered workforce Newspapers are alight with reports of Police Forces either considering or deleting PCSO posts. The most recent example being Nottinghamshire Police’s announcement on 11th September 2015, that they are reducing their PCSO establishment by 70. On the 9th September 2015, the Metropolitan Police announced that they are considering axing 1,017 PCSO […]

Conference notes that despite the hard work of so many of our activists throughout the United Kingdom – many of whom went out on the ‘doorstep’ for Labour during the general election campaign – we were unable to get the change in government so many of us wanted and we are now stuck with the […]

Conference notes that self-organisation is at the heart of our union. However, there can be challenges in bringing together members into self organised groups (SOGS) where the employer is dispersed over a wide geographical area, in smaller branches and employers, in multi-employer branches and in fragmented workplaces. Working together with other branches within our towns […]